A question from across the pond :D

[TheIrishVikingsFan]

I was in munich recently and there was a load of Americans staying at my hostel ( few from Minnesota, it was nice to talk Vikings football with them ) they were all sound as a pound, but literally none of them could understand me. I was thinking its because we get so much American Tv that we kinda get a lot of the slang from the States, but they literally had no Idea what I was on about half the time. I was wondering do most people from the states have a problem understanding all of our crazy words or am I just impossible to understand anyway

[The Breeze]

Personally, I have trouble grogging a thick Irish accent...at least initially. The more beers I have the better I get. Not sure what it is....and it's only the thicker ones. I think it has to do with voice inflection and which syllables get emphasized versus the way english is spoken here.

Have yet to get to Ireland....hope to some day.

[TheIrishVikingsFan]

Personally, I have trouble grogging a thick Irish accent...at least initially. The more beers I have the better I get. Not sure what it is....and it's only the thicker ones. I think it has to do with voice inflection and which syllables get emphasized versus the way english is spoken here.

Have yet to get to Ireland....hope to some day.

Feel free to come we need all the money we can get over here !

[The Breeze]

Feel free to come we need all the money we can get over here !

I have a pretty bad feeling that the money condition is going to spread like wildfire.......

[BGM]

I was in munich recently and there was a load of Americans staying at my hostel ( few from Minnesota, it was nice to talk Vikings football with them ) they were all sound as a pound, but literally none of them could understand me. I was thinking its because we get so much American Tv that we kinda get a lot of the slang from the States, but they literally had no Idea what I was on about half the time. I was wondering do most people from the states have a problem understanding all of our crazy words or am I just impossible to understand anyway

Hard to make any judgement without actually hearing you speak, but being you're from Cork, I imagine the American ear isn't well-tuned to either the accent or the slang. I've always been fascinated by language and accents, so I dig getting a chance to speak with anyone from outside the US. Probably stems from my fascination with old BBC shows played on Public Television here in the states. I sing in a group with a gentleman who grew up in Wales and it took some time for my mind to get used to his speech patterns. Truly, it's partially a cultural thing. Unless we travel or live in a pretty cosmopolitan area, most Americans don't encounter European accents or slang on a regular basis.

[TheIrishVikingsFan]

Hard to make any judgement without actually hearing you speak, but being you're from Cork, I imagine the American ear isn't well-tuned to either the accent or the slang. I've always been fascinated by language and accents, so I dig getting a chance to speak with anyone from outside the US. Probably stems from my fascination with old BBC shows played on Public Television here in the states. I sing in a group with a gentleman who grew up in Wales and it took some time for my mind to get used to his speech patterns. Truly, it's partially a cultural thing. Unless we travel or live in a pretty cosmopolitan area, most Americans don't encounter European accents or slang on a regular basis.

There is literally a boat load of slang in cork haha xD

[HornedMessiah]

I was in Vienna, Austria about five years ago and ran into some Irish dudes at a bar who were temporarily living there and working construction. Did some drinking with them but holy crap I could barely understand what they were saying, and unlike The Breeze it didn't get better the drunker I got. Maybe it was because they were fairly soused as well. They could understand me fine, though. Never asked me to repeat myself.

A friend of a friend got married a few years ago and his best man was a Scot he went to film school with in London. I realize that comparing a Scot to an Irishman might be fightin' words, but it was the same case: hard to understand the guy.

It's really strange to know that someone is speaking your language but you can't understand them. I think it's because you guys over there speak slightly faster than we do over here, and together with the accents it makes it hard to decipher. Like a loud mumble, if that makes any sense. Haha